Does poverty alleviation through relocation increase relative deprivation? Evidence from Pingjiang county, China

Abstract

China's relocation-based targeted poverty alleviation measures have significantly improved the material conditions of impoverished populations. However, the negative impacts of large-scale, rapidly advancing relocation models on social integration and psychological adaptation among migrants deserve further exploration. On this basis, this study developed a relative deprivation index model involving economic, social, and emotional dimensions and employed a quantile regression model to systematically assess the impact of resettlement methods, individual characteristics, and locational features relative migrants' sense of relative deprivation and attitudes towards relocation policies. The findings reveal that different resettlement approaches, particularly including tourism-based, town-centered, and administrative village-centered resettlements, significantly impact migrants' sense of relative deprivation. ,These approaches increase migrants' economic, social, and emotional deprivation particularly among migrants with low to medium levels of deprivation. In contrast, the impact of urban-centered resettlements is relatively mild, and dispersed resettlements tend to mitigate economic and social deprivation to some extent. The study also identified that families with heavy burdens, those in disadvantaged spatial locations, and marginalized groups exhibit higher levels of deprivation and opposition, especially noticeable in the lower to medium deprivation quantiles. These results offer insights for future policymaking in poverty alleviation resettlement models, focusing on differentiated attention to deprived groups and establishing long-term tracking mechanisms to foster a transition from material improvement to psychological adaptation and social sustainability in post-poverty alleviation era in rural China.